After hearing Palmer Luckey's argument for the name change[0], I tend to think it's good change.

Some of his arguments:

It used to be called the department of war, and it had a better track record with regard to foreign conflict, under that name then it did under the DoD name.

Department of war is a more honest name, department of defense is a somewhat newspeak term, although "Department of Peace" would be worse.

It's harder to seek funding for "war", then it is to seek funding for "defense". If you ask someone, "Do you want to spend money on education or war?", you will get a different answer asking, "Do you want to spend money on education or defense?".

[0] Palmer Luckey talking to Mike Rowe about the name change: https://youtu.be/dejWbn_-gUQ?t=1007

DoW is the opposite of newspeak, it is much more transparent and honest about what that organization is and has been for my entire life

> newspeak name for the DoD.

They changed the name and it matches the intention. It is not a newspeak name anymore.

Arguably the original name was the newspeak and the new name is more honest

I went to a military high school up until 2011 and never remember hearing it. My dad and grandpa were military for 20 years each and I've never heard either say it. It definitely hasn't been used broadly in the US for very long (maybe in very specific circles). Even my friends who work as engineers for defense contractors now have never called people "war fighters" around me.

It's been in use by overly earnest DoD officials and Raytheon salespeople. But no normal person would use it unironically.

However I suppose Amodei in this context can be included in the former group.

Yeah, it’s common alright. Commonly used as a joke by every veteran I’ve ever met to mock try-hards.